


thinking out loud

by iridescentwinters



Category: SKAM Austin
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 08:26:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16193789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iridescentwinters/pseuds/iridescentwinters
Summary: as daniel's english lit grades slip, the risk of losing his spot on the football team increases, and his teacher forces him to take part in the school's talent show. and all hope is lost until he runs into grace, and the pair decide on doing a duet together. of course, they face some difficulties, but they manage to conquer them, together.no one warned them that dancing to a love song would mean having feelings get involved in the process.





	1. can i have this dance?

**Author's Note:**

> — prompt: Prompt if you're still taking them: grace and Daniel dancing together

daniel couldn’t believe what he was hearing at that moment.

“i’m sorry, what?” he asked, incredulous. “i have to do what?”

mr mazzu rolled his eyes at how dramatic the quarterback was being. “join the talent show.” he repeated, leaning against his desk. “if you wanna stay on the team for the new season with the kind of grades you have currently in english lit, then you’re gonna have to make it up somehow. nothing is free in life.”

daniel rubbed his temples. “isn’t there anything else i could do?” he asked, no, begged. “like, clean your classroom for however long you want, or scrub the toilets, or… i don’t know!” he exclaimed. “anything but the talent show. come on, mr mazzu!”

the teacher furrowed his eyebrows. “what’s wrong with the talent show?” he asked. “everyone loves the talent show. you always come to watch it every year. why not participate?”

“i have no talents, sir.” daniel replied, exasperated. “like, what am i supposed to do? i can’t sing in-tune to save my life!”

mr mazzu thought about it for a moment, before standing up straight. “look, daniel,” he started, “come by to the theatre hall after school. then we’ll figure out what you should do.” he patted the boy’s shoulder. “who knows? maybe you’ll find your calling in there later.”

_my calling?_ daniel thought with a frown. _what does that even mean?_

“see you after school then, mr williamson?” mr mazzu asked, with a tone that let daniel know that he _definitely_ needed to be there.

he sighed, before nodding in confirmation. “after school.”

  
  
  
daniel kept the hood of his jacket up, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone as he made his way down the corridor, towards the theatre hall. the last thing he needed was more gossip about him becoming some theatre geek.

mr mazzu was already present, looking through some sheets ms wolf had clipped on a clipboard. the both of them spotted daniel as the doors of the hall swung open with a creak.

“daniel. i’m very glad you’ve decided to joined us.” mr mazzu said, in an innocent-like tone. daniel rolled his eyes subtly, knowing that it was a partial joke on his end.

ms wolf patted the boy’s shoulder. “welcome to the talent show, kiddo.” she said, with an infectious grin that made him smile as well. it was impossible to be cross with ms wolf. she was definitely a student favourite because of her motherly antics.

“come on, let’s visit backstage. maybe you’ll get some inspiration there.” mr mazzu said, putting a hand on daniel’s shoulder, driving him towards the stage.

daniel ignored the curious stares he got from the people onstage, and focused his gaze towards him, behind the stage where all the holding rooms were. like mr mazzu said, there were performers there, practising their pieces.

admittedly, daniel was impressed with what he saw. there was the acapella club that performed every year but never failed to blow the audience’s minds away with their mashups, the drama club practising their mini-skits, a few math geeks practising magic tricks, and of course, the dance club, working their way through an upbeat choreography.

yet, watching them didn’t help him one bit. in fact, they made him a lot more depressed. _how are all of them so talented, and i have 0 talents?_ he wondered with a sigh.

mr mazzu noticed the slight change of behaviour from daniel. “hey,” he said, “there’s always lighting you can do with maashous.”

daniel shrugged. “i guess.” he muttered. he still couldn’t believe that he had to be part of the talent show,  _ just _ for the sake of his spot on the team.

someone peeked behind a wall and called for mr mazzu, who turned around and gave the girl a ‘one minute’ hand gesture, before looking back at his student. “how about you go get the prop box for now? it’s only down this corridor.” he said, pointing north of them.

daniel sighed inwardly, before nodding, and setting off to get what mr mazzu asked for.

as he walked down the corridor, he could hear faint music booming louder and louder as he reached the end of the corridor.

not only did he find the box, he also found out where the music was coming from. a dance studio.

peeping through the small rectangular window, he caught sight of a brunette, moving to the beat of the song, her steps as graceful as they can be.

_grace._

intrigued, daniel quietly enters the studio, careful not to break her out of her trance. he watched in awe, as she leaped into the air, reaching the ground after a pirouette, as it seemed.

the song ended a few minutes after, and daniel decided to clap once it was done. grace’s head snapped up, surprised to see someone else in the studio.

and that person being daniel williamson, someone who wouldn’t dare to be caught at the theatre hall under any normal circumstances. she turned around to face him.

“what are you doing here?” she asked, ratherly curtly. see, daniel wasn’t exactly her favourite person in the world. and neither was she to him. he only liked to rile her up; get on her nerves because she was irritated quite easily by him.

daniel smirked. “what? can’t i appreciate talent without being questioned?” he asked teasingly, taking steps closer to her.

grace rolled her eyes, and bent down to grab her water bottle. the duo stood there in silence, until daniel broke it.

“can i be honest?”

grace raised an eyebrow, before nodding warily.

“it’s kinda awkward to dance to a love song without a partner.” daniel admitted. “i mean, i’m not saying you weren’t good. i’m just saying it would look nicer if there was someone else dancing with you.”

grace took the feedback in consideration. _he had a point…._ she thought, letting her fingers run through her hair. _but the choreography didn’t seem right without this song…. and honestly, i’m too lazy to choreograph to another song._

“i know ben’s quite the dancer.” daniel interrupted her thoughts, with a cheeky grin. grace rolled her eyes. “i wouldn’t quite consider dabbing as dancing, donald.” she retorted, placing her bottle down. she then sized daniel up subtly.

“you didn’t answer my question.” she said. “what are you doing here? in the theatre hall?”

daniel stuffed his hands into his pockets. “my grades have been shitty this entire sem for english lit, and mazzu’s pissed.” he admitted. “so he’s making me participate in the show to make up for it.”

grace suddenly turned away from him, and made her way towards the boomboxes, where her laptop was plugged in. “have you decided on what you’re gonna do?” she asked casually, entering her password and reopening the itunes app.

daniel snorted. “you’ve known me for quite some time now, gracie. you tell me.” he said. “i mean, i watched a few performances just now, but nothing’s really my thing, you know? honestly, i don’t think i have a single artistic bone in my body-”

the song flowed through the room again, cutting daniel mid-rant. grace walked back to him, slowly, in-beat. “i know you well enough to know you’ve taken ballroom dancing.” she said with a grin, holding out her palm towards him.

daniel hesitated. “i-” he started, but grace shot him a ‘come on’ look, which made him sigh and accept her hand.

turns out, daniel did remember quite a few things from the lessons his mother forced him to take for his cousin’s wedding. but unlike the actual wedding day performance, he felt much at ease. with grace, he felt more confident in his steps, and didn’t feel the need to look up at the audience every 5 seconds, to make sure no one was laughing at him.

_then again, we’re alone,_ he thought giddily, as he spun grace around, before catching her as she leaned back and stretched her leg out. their eye contact never broke throughout as they danced, and daniel remembered that it was vial to trust your partner’s eyes.

then again, daniel always thought grace had pretty eyes. too pretty, in fact. because he always somehow got lost in them without warning.

they stopped at the next chorus.

grace snapped out of her daze. “daniel, that was-”

before she could say anything else, claps from behind them erupted, making the duo look back.

it was mr mazzu, along with ms wolf, big grins smeared on their faces.

“well, daniel,” mr mazzu started, “guess you just found your calling.”

daniel finally snapped out of his own trance, and was about to protest, until he caught a glimpse of the look on grace’s face. hope. belief.

pausing for a moment, daniel then took a deep breath, before looking back at the girl.

“could i be part of your item, grace olsen?” he asked with a shy smile.

grace returned it with a smile of her own. “i’d like that, daniel williamson.”


	2. rehearsals

for 6 weeks, grace and daniel worked diligently, working on the choreography and once they had that nailed, they proceeded onto perfecting it.

at first, it was getting frustrating for daniel, because he couldn’t seem to remember the moves in the correct order, but grace was very patient, reminding him that it was only a few days since they started working on it together.

as the pair worked on their piece, grace started tutoring daniel in english lit, in-between the breaks they took. she helped him with his homework, and suddenly, english lit didn’t seem as irritating and annoying as it seemed initially.

mr mazzu noticed the pleasant change in daniel’s attitude in class, but didn’t comment on it verbally.

but he did leave small notes of encouragement on daniel’s assignments, making the boy smile.

it was the two days before the performance now, and mr mazzu held a full-dress rehearsal.

that was where daniel froze up, completely forgetting about the fact that they were going to perform on stage, in front of a real audience.

the hall went pindrop silence, as daniel stood there, paralysed in fear. he never understood how he could play football for big games in front of hundreds of people, but couldn’t do anything in a small theatre hall.

that made him feel so disappointed in himself. not only did he disappoint himself, he let grace down as well.

“i-i’m sorry. i can’t.” he croaked out an apology, before dashing off the stage, towards backstage and into the studio.

grace followed suite, not caring about mr mazzu’s immediate orders. she found daniel on the floor, his knees tucked under his chin, his eyes drooped downwards in misery.

seeing him like that pulled on her heartstrings. “hey.” she said softly, making her way towards him, and sitting right next to him.

“i’m sorry, grace.” daniel said with a sigh. “i just-i don’t know.”

grace ‘tsk’ed him in a good natured manner. “don’t apologise, you didn’t do anything wrong.” she said, placing a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it tightly.

“how are we gonna do this tomorrow, if i can’t even perform with a few people in the room?” daniel asked, suddenly panicking. the show was in two days, and he just discovered that he had stage fright.

“hey.” grace said in an authoritative voice. “look at me.”

reluctantly, daniel did so. firmness and determination were etched on her facial features. “we’ll figure something out, okay? we can do this.”

it seemed like false hope to believe in that, but daniel didn’t say anything. instead, he was once again, drowning into her eyes. “can i tell you something?” he asked, awkwardly. grace nodded, curious as to what he had to say.

“your eyes are really pretty.”

grace blinked back in surprise. “oh. um,” she blushed slightly, her fingertips touching the crinkle of her eye. “thank you. always thought they were just boring brown.” she joked.

daniel scoffed. “ _boring brown_ is so underrated.” he said, lying down on the floor. “in fact, boring in whole is underrated. why can’t a person be boring and not be judged for it?” he asked, extremely crossed. grace laid next to him.

“i don’t know, daniel.” she said softly. “that’s just how the way the world works now, i guess. if you prefer to stay home and watch movies instead of being at a rager on a friday night, you’re boring. if you don’t like to show skin and much rather be in oversized hoodies and sweatpants, you’re boring.” she shrugged. “maybe nothing’s boring. maybe it’s just the way we see things in our perspectives.”

daniel looked back at grace, who suddenly had a blank expression on her face, as she looked up at the ceiling. he suddenly remembered the incident that happened to her years back, in freshman year. one of his football seniors had taken an interest in grace, but only as a bet to see how long it would take for him to bed her. he did, on the way, really fall for her, but because grace’s interests differed from his friends’, he dropped her, not wanting to seem like he was ‘whipped’ or into ‘boring’ girls like grace.

daniel remembered thinking how someone could drop someone like grace. she was beautiful, kind and caring. and incredibly talented.

“he was an idiot.” he thought out loud, grabbing grace’s attention. “he didn’t deserve you. he never did, and never will.” he faced the girl, and vice versa. “there’s literally no way someone could classify you as boring, grace. you’re literally the coolest person i know. and if they can’t see that….” he paused for a moment, before continuing. “fuck them.”

grace was touched by daniel’s words. she really was over it, but hearing things like that always made her feel good. like it really wasn’t her fault.

“hey, daniel?” grace whispered, as the two subtly had gotten closer to each other. when the boy hummed a response, his eyes down on her lips, she said, “you have pretty nice eyes too.”

as daniel leaned in, a loud slam echoed through the hallways, making grace sit up and look behind them. daniel groaned internally. _ stupid humans, _ he thought, _ why couldn’t you have better timings?! _

“what time is it?” grace asked. daniel looked at the digital watch on his wrist. “8PM.” he replied. grace got up from the floor. “rehearsal’s over.” she said, but a grin latched itself on her face. “let’s go. we have the stage all to ourselves.”

the word ‘stage’ made daniel gulp. “er, i don’t-”

“come on, daniel.” grace said, “that stage is your only obstacle now. and we need to get over it.”

sighing, the boy nodded, getting up from the floor. “you’re right.” he agreed. “let’s do it.”

 

for two full hours, grace and daniel worked on their piece on-stage, and daniel was slowly but surely conquering his stage fright. it did help with the fact that the hall was empty, but setting foot on that stage and not screwing up was daniel’s focus at that moment.

and he was doing good.

grace reminded him that when he was on stage, he shouldn’t be looking at the audience. “when you step foot on this stage, it becomes your space.” grace said, as they danced. “focus on no one but yourself. don’t even think about looking at the audience.” she said, before daniel lifted her in the air. “what do you even wanna look at? they’re all gonna look tiny from up here. plus, maashous  _ loves _ bright lightning. it’s gonna blind you, literally, if you try to look up and away.”

as daniel set her down after a couple of spins, grace twirled her way into his arms, her hand caressing his face. “always keep your eyes on me. like how we practised.” she instructed, pushing down the butterflies she was feeling in her stomach. it was an intimate piece, she had to admit, but what made it more intense was the way daniel looked at her.

daniel liked the fact that grace was keeping him both focused on their routine, and distracted away from the need of looking up. “could you talk like this during the actual performance?” he asked hopefully, making her laugh.

“i wish i could. but it would be way too obvious, especially with the two projectors.” she said, and daniel sighed, understanding.

and before he knew it, the song ended, and they were on their final position.

grace smiled. “congratulations. you just conquered your stage fright.”


	3. the show

daniel really did it.

the day after the following, they had a full-day rehearsal, and unlike the previous night, daniel walked in confidence, and nailed every move, remembering grace’s words of advice.

the audience, which consisted of mr mazzu, ms wolf, and the other performers, clapped loudly and cheered for them. they were the last item for the night, and everyone told them that they were definitely going to close the night amazingly.

daniel made new friends throughout the 6 weeks, and got rid of the silly prejudice he had against the theatre geeks. of course they were theatre geeks, because they had a passion for it. that didn’t mean it had to be connotated in a negative way. no one should be called ‘lame’ or ‘loser’ for having a passion for something.

the night came rolling by, and daniel peeked through the curtains, watching everyone getting settled into their seats. his heart thumped against his chest, suddenly feeling nauseous.

grace was right by him, and held his face in her hand. “hey, look at me.” she whispered, making him immediately do so. “remember. pretend that they’re not there. focus on yourself. focus on  _ me _ .”

daniel took a huge breath, before nodding. “right.” he mumbled. he really did understand. but it was hard to vocalise when your vocal chords suddenly seemed too tight to use, and your stomach was churning rapidly.

grace held onto daniel’s hand, as they watched the other performances from the monitor installed in the studio, and practised one last time during the interval.

there was a knock on the door, before one of their classmates with a headset and clipboard popped up. “daniel and grace, y’all better start making your way to your positions. you go on in 10.”

the duo nodded. “we’ll be there, give us a minute.” grace assured the girl, making her nod and walk off quickly. the brunette looked back at him.

“how are you feeling?” she asked, and he shrugged. “like i’m about to shit my pants.” he admitted, making her chuckle. “me too,” she said, “but it’ll look especially bad if i really did, considering it is a white dress.” she looked down on her outfit. it was a little scandalous, in her opinion, but ms wolf waved it off and said it looked ‘classy’. and one was to never argue with ms wolf.

daniel’s eyes raked down his partner’s figure. “i can’t believe i didn’t say this two days ago, but you look beautiful.” he said, sounding breathless.

grace bit down on her lip, blushing. “thank you.” she said, before getting on her tippy-toes and fixing his collar. “you look handsome as well.”

taking his hand, she said, “let’s do this thing.”

  
  
  
  
_ “when your legs don’t work like they used to before….” _

 

two beaming spotlights flashed on stage, shining down on daniel and grace as they walked towards each other at a slow pace.  _ “and i can’t sweep you off of your feet.” _

 

_ “will your mouth still remember the taste of my love? will your eyes still smile from your cheeks?” _

 

daniel and grace held each other by the waist, circling each other, before daniel whirled her away, and grace leaned over on her right, her arm being held firmly by daniel.

 

_ “and darling i, will, be loving you 'til we're 70.” _

 

daniel twirled her right back in, close to him, and she grabbed ahold of his shoulders as they took one step forward, and took one step back into their original position. grace held his hand high up and slipped hers into his grip, and used her free hand to make daniel look up at her. daniel’s other hand slipped around her waist, and they began to ballroom dance.

 

_ “and baby my, heart, could still fall as, hard at 23. and i’m thinking ‘bout, how….” _

 

daniel held grace by the waist, as she broke into a small tango-piece, her legs swiftly kicking up and down twice, before circling daniel.

 

_ “people fall in love in mysterious ways….” _

 

a few members of the audience let out soft breaths as daniel dipped grace, circling her slowly yet sharply, before bringing her right back up.

 

_ “maybe just the touch of a hand.” _

 

of course, a few people, most likely daniel’s football team members, whooped as daniel’s face went close to grace’s neck in a smooth caress, while her arm slid over her chest, but that didn’t last very long, as grace broke free from his grasp, and glided away from him, a grin etched on her face as he followed suite.

 

_ “oh me i fall in love with you every single day….” _

 

the moves at this part where created by daniel, who wanted a special handshake with grace. they decided to include it in, considering how ‘dancey’ (according to grace) it was.

at the next move, it seemed as though the entire audience gasped, shell-shocked at the flawless movements carried out by both daniel and grace, as he picked her up in the air easily, while she stretched her leg outwards, toes pointing towards the sky, before transitioning herself around daniel’s waist, locked in as he spun them around.

 

_ “and i just wanna tell you i am....” _

 

the song went on, as did grace and daniel without a single flaw. the duo tuned out the noises made by the audience, and listened to the beat, and locked their gazes on each other.

daniel forgot that the audience was there. all that mattered was grace. just him and grace, right there, dancing as though nothing else mattered but them.

dancing with grace felt like completing a puzzle piece. the europhia he felt,  _ they _ felt together beat any feelings of happiness daniel felt after winning a game.

a rush of adrenaline injected its way into daniel, as they came to the ending of the song.

 

_ “oh maybe, we found love right where we are.” _

 

daniel pushed grace’s foot down to the floor and she twirled into him, grabbing ahold of his shoulder, for one last dip.

 

_ “and we found love right where we are.” _

 

as grace slowly came back up, the audience jumped out of their seats, clapping as loudly as they could, and cheered for the duo on stage, some even yelling “encore!”.

but grace and daniel still had their eyes on each other, unable to tear away.

"fuck it.” daniel whispered, before placing his lips against hers.

catcalls and wolf-whistles belted out, but they barely could hear them, could hear anyone.

all they could hear, was their hearts beating out of their chests.

 

out of hope.

out of adrenaline.

out of love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly one of my best works in my opinion. i think the nice thing about writing a couple that i don't write enough about is that when i do, the ideas aren't forced or seem too rushed. writing about daniel and grace always remind me why i write, and i think that's beautiful <3


End file.
